Personal pollen exposure compared to stationary measurements

The aim of this study was to examine to what extent stationary outdoor pollen measurements are representative for estimating personal exposure to pollen. Ten subjects were studied during a total of 36 days in spring and summer Pollen was sampled using personal SKC total dust samplers and stationary Burkard pollen traps. The personal activity pattern was recorded quarter-hourly as well as the time spent outdoors. As a reference, SKC and Burkard samplers were run stationary and in parallel. Stationary comparison of the samplers showed good correlation (r = 0.981, p <0.001). However, the SKC sampler collected systematically about four times less pollen than the Burkard sampler. Taking into account the systematic difference between the sampling devices, the personal exposure data were about 30% of the stationary pollen concentrations with significant correlation (log-transformed data, r = 0.719, p <0.0001). Considering the average time the subjects spent outdoors (14% of sampling time), the indoor-outdoor ratio for pollen was 0.2. In conclusion, pollen reports are reliable for estimating personal exposure over a limited time period although personal pollen exposure is much lower.